Left Shaw by the 11pm ferry last night. Boarding the ferry from shaw is clearly an activity designed for "those who already know how to do it". I was the only car boarding at shaw, so I had no example to follow... But when I drove onto the ferry I found myself facing a whole mess of cars pointing the other way. They apparently exit on the next stop, orcas is. and I had to figure out (actually eventually get yelled at) to back out and exit on orcas too. But I want to go to Anacortes not Orcas! So I had to get out and find help... Turns out I'm supposed to drive through the town quickly to the "now loading" line for getting right back on. Barely made it. Then headed south (it was midnight-thirty when I got off the ferry). Driving alone at night is lame unless you roll down the windows, open the sun roof, and sing at the top of your lungs ;-)

Slept in a rest area south of olympia... People kept letting their dogs get near my sleeping bag...and in the morning light I discovered I had slept over a blackberry (? Some thorny vine anyway) patch. Luckily I had not rolled off or something.

All this .... To visit w/ Kenny (dekar) and Greg Leblanc (greg) in Portland! Got into Portland and got to meet Kenny after chatting much w/ him for the past 4 years on IRC. The 3 of us had lunch and talked for a while, then headed to a huge bookstore. A bad man in the bookstore cafe rudely informed us that it was a "reading area" (BS, it sure wasn't marked as one) and to take our "blabbering to a restaurant or something". *sigh* Of course we left not wanting confrontation... But it cut the visit shorter because we dispersed soon after.

Now I'm in Corvallis, OR to visit my uncle and aunt. The rest of my immediate family should be arriving any hour now. I'm going to check if Duncan's in town, but he's probably already in the east.